This last weekend we went to the Metolius River.

I was a little sick, the kids wanted freedom and fun, and Innocent Husband needed a fly fishing pole in his hands.

 

 

 

We stayed at an incredible cabin where if you stood in the living room and looked out, all you would see is the river rushing underneath the deck. The water was our backyard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I needed to write, imagine, think, and plow through problems I was having with the latest book I’m writing.  All this is best done when I’m in nature.  Give me trees to stare at, a lake to swim in, waves to watch, and the ideas in my head flow. Most importantly I needed time to hug Innocent Husband and a few hours of poker with our wonderful, noisy, opinionated, funny kids at night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes I feel like I can’t think where I live.

There’s too much stuff.  Family busyness and pressures, work that always needs to be done, a house I really don’t like cleaning, piles I need to organize. A bunch of people around me in this city I’ve lived in for 35 years, most of whom I really like, some of whom I love dearly, and a few I really don’t want to see and if they moved to Russia I would slam a vodka down in celebration even though I very rarely drink and have not tasted vodka since I was twenty and think it tastes vile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting away with family or laughing friends, or alone, takes the edge off of life.  The beach, the mountains, the high desert….

A wee bit of advice? Go see something new.  Go talk to friendly strangers. Stare into a river.  Marvel at a mountain.  Splash in the ocean waves. Eat soup at a picnic table or make s’mores over a camp fire. Write in your journal by a duck pond. Paint outside on a hill. Or sit and don’t think at all unless you see a yellow butterfly, then you can sit and think about how much beauty butterflies bring to the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go adventuring.

Take a break.

Please.

It’s summer.

You’ll feel better.

Cheers and happy exploring.